Action Charades

Objectives

• develop clearer physical communication through mime
• encourage players to discover their own tactics instead of waiting for instructions
• train persistence when the first idea does not solve the problem

How to Explain It

You will get a card with five verbs on it. Mime them for your team, and they must guess all five before the time runs out. You can do the verbs in any order, so work smart, not just hard.

Teaching Notes

• Do not tell players the order can change unless they ask. Levy uses that hidden freedom to force them to think for themselves.
• If a team gets stuck, coach the actor to try a different verb and come back later.
• Keep the card vocabulary playable. The game should be fast and furious, not clogged by obscure words.
• Use the timer to create urgency, but not so much pressure that players stop experimenting.

Common Pressure Points

• Players assume they must mime the verbs in the written order and get trapped on a hard one.
• The actor gives up on a difficult verb instead of changing tactics.
• The mime becomes too vague because the actor is rushing without committing physically.
• Teams stop collaborating and wait for one person to solve everything.

Notes That Appear Directly in Source Material

• Levy explicitly says the actor can choose any order for the five verbs, though students are not told this unless they ask.
• The discussion section asks what tactics could help and in what way the team must work as an ensemble.
• The purpose section links the exercise to persistence, changing tactics when something is not working, and thinking independently.

One-Line Audience Intro

Our player has five actions on a card, and the team has to guess all of them before the clock runs out.

Playing Notes

• Keep the verbs simple so the round stays fast.
• Let the actor change order when one verb is stalling the team.
• The audience or opposing team should be able to track the time pressure clearly.
• The energy comes from speed and adjustment, not from making the mime impossible to read.

Wrap-Up Logic

• End the round when all five verbs are guessed or the time expires.
• Compare team times after the agreed number of rounds.

Levy documents Action Charades in 112 Acting Games as a timed team mime-and-guess exercise built around verb cards. The current source base confirms the published classroom version and its teaching rationale, but it does not identify an earlier inventor beyond Levy's documented use.